Report: Arpaio aide Hendershott used MCSO unit vs. his foes

Officers: Hendershott put task force on his enemies

When Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's anti-corruption unit was established in 2008, it set out to investigate and prosecute corruption in public agencies.

But once the sheriff's second-in-command, then-Chief Deputy David Hendershott, assumed control, the unit became a tool to smear political enemies, say a number of deputies interviewed in an internal investigation released this week.

Detailed testimony of the inner workings of the public-corruption unit is contained in more than 1,000 pages of an investigation by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu into the conduct of Hendershott and two other sheriff's commanders, former Deputy Chief Larry Black and Capt. Joel Fox. The heavily redacted report was released Tuesday.

Soon after Maricopa County's Anti-Corruption Effort inquiry into county Supervisor Don Stapley gained momentum in mid-2008, Hendershott took over the investigation, directing every move and isolating detectives to keep them from knowing the full scope of the investigation, according to Babeu's report.

Hendershott valued loyalty and media coverage more than competency, according to those interviewed, and as his own men disagreed with the direction of the cases, the former chief deputy allowed a county prosecutor to become an investigator. Hendershott ordered detectives to sit outside a county employee's home, make traffic stops as an excuse to question her, and ordered undercover surveillance on Stapley's home despite claims by detectives that it wasn't necessary.

Sheriff's Deputy Chief Bill Knight recalled a conversation he had with Hendershott about the chief deputy's motives for certain investigations, including the Stapley investigation.

"Is it actually a criminal charge that we're looking for, or are we looking at dirtying their name politically in the media," Knight recalled asking Hendershott, adding that the chief deputy was "more interested in seeing them getting their butts kicked in the media."

A memo another Arpaio commander wrote and delivered to the sheriff in the fall led to Babeu's investigation.

Investigators focused on administrative violations, not potential criminal conduct. After the report's release to Arpaio last month, Hendershott and Black were told they would be fired; both resigned. Babeu said he recommended Arpaio also terminate Fox.

An attorney for Hendershott declined to comment Wednesday.

Interim Chief Jerry Sheridan disbanded the MACE unit in September.

By then, the Sheriff's Office faced mounting criticism that the unit was a political tool.

The Babeu report shows detectives in the unit came to see MACE the same way.

Sgt. Rich Johnson told Babeu's investigators he heard those concerns when he joined the unit, but Johnson didn't believe them.

"At the time, absolutely not," Johnson said. "Am I feeling that now? Yes."

Another sheriff's commander, Lt. Travis Anglin, described his six-month stint supervising MACE investigators as "one of the most frustrating times of my career."

Investigations

Anglin joined the unit in May 2008, as MACE was about to score the squad's first and only conviction: Harquahala Fire District Chief Randall Long for theft.

Anglin said he noticed a change in MACE's approach to investigations later in 2008 after Deputy County Attorney Lisa Aubuchon was assigned to coordinate cases with sheriff's investigators.

Eventually, Anglin said, he understood that Aubuchon and Hendershott were guiding MACE and that his input was not needed.

"If I'm not supervising the cases and I'm not supervising the guys, there's really no reason for me to be there," Anglin said, "so I would just go get my hair cut."

Hendershott told investigators the cases required his oversight because of their complex nature and high-profile targets.

When the corruption investigations began, lawsuits from the targets frequently followed, and Hendershott said he was the only person in a position to see what county officials were really doing because he monitored both the lawsuits and the criminal probes.

"Essentially the Board of Supervisors was using their political influence and taxpayer dollars to protect themselves from what, to me, was criminal activity," Hendershott told Pinal County investigators.

Nowhere in Babeu's report is Hendershott's influence in the MACE cases highlighted more than in his request for a search warrant to investigate whether county administrators paid for a sweep of their offices to find listening devices administrators believed were planted by the Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office never planted bugs, which was the first logical hurdle detectives tried to clear when Hendershott asked for the warrant.

Hendershott ultimately turned his focus to Lt. Rich Burden, with an order to deliver the search warrant by 7 a.m. the following day. Burden laughed, realized Hendershott was serious, then refused.

After that, Burden said, phone calls from Hendershott began, with the chief deputy giving Burden the same instructions in each conversation: "You'd better have that search warrant on my desk at 7 a.m."

Frustrated, Burden said he went home and had a couple of beers. The phone calls continued, with Hendershott threatening to "machine gun" detectives who would not cooperate with his request.

"And I said then, '(expletive) pull the trigger,' " Burden recounted, before telling investigators that he hung up on Hendershott.

Babeu's investigators confirmed allegations that Hendershott removed Burden, three other commanders and a number of detectives from the MACE unit after they refused to write the search warrant.

Some claims cleared

But investigators could not confirm all the MACE-related allegations concerning Hendershott.

Investigators exonerated Hendershott of the allegation that he tried to arrange a job for Aubuchon, saying such an attempt would not violate county policy.

They also could not sustain allegations that Hendershott ordered the arrest of Stapley without probable cause, nor a separate claim that Hendershott acted unlawfully when he seized control of a computerized criminal-records system.

Babeu's investigators also addressed allegations that Hendershott coordinated MACE operations to maximize media exposure and that Hendershott mishandled the unit's probe into county Supervisor Andy Kunasek, concluding those decisions did not violate policy.

"Whether the investigative techniques were sound, productive and cost- and time-effective may or may not be questionable, but Hendershott was at liberty to direct the investigations," Babeu's investigators wrote.

Impact of cases

The first round of charges against Stapley over financial records was dropped. The MACE probe later led to allegations of fraud; some of those charges are still pending.

The impact of the MACE unit's failed investigations - and Hendershott's actions - could be great for taxpayers.

Stapley, Hendershott and Aubuchon join other county supervisors, judges and sheriff's and county officials who have filed notices of claims against the county and state.

The claims, which describe reputations damaged by malicious prosecution or false statements on either side of the conflict, total more than $177 million.

The cases could be settled or taken to court.

County Manager David Smith, who reports to the Board of Supervisors, is directing any mediation processes and has said no one will unfairly benefit from the settlement process.

Although he promised the process would be transparent, Steven LaMar, the attorney appointed to defend the county against some of the cases, would not disclose to The Arizona Republic how the cases are being handled, saying, "I don't know what they meant by transparent. . . . All I can tell you is I'm going to represent the county as best I can."

A county spokeswoman would not produce records in response to a Republic public-records request on the cases, saying the documents are privileged, confidential and "are being withheld based on the best interests of the state."